Family pictures

The Sunday after Thanksgiving the Wethje fam got together for some pictures. Joe and I showed up a little early so that we could have a few taken as a new little family. :)
I love this photo, it shows my boys chunky cheeks so well... I have a feeling bulldog might become his nick name. I love how they rest on his shoulders.
Joe loves his little man. He's been working on AJ standing by himself. I try and tell him that 2 1/2 months might be a little young for that, but you can't stop him once he has his mind on something. Next thing he needs to work with him on is bringing mommy breakfast in bed. :)
It's funny to me how many pics I have of AJ, but since I'm the one taking the pics only a handful of them are of me and AJ, so I wanted a couple with just us two.
Here is the whole family! Family photos is a favorite time for many of the Wethjes....HA! Everyone did pretty good though and they were a lot quicker this year then they have been in years past. Love them all so much

Beth

Cooking Adventures

For some of you who don't know me I love to cook and bake. If we had a lot of money I would be cooking amazing meals every night and Joe would be a happy, well fed man, but we don't so Joe settles for grilled cheese and tomato soup, and the occasional chicken dish or salmon.

Anyway, I thought since I love to bake so much that maybe I could put it to good use and try and start a business selling candies, cookies and cakes...different things like that. So I went to the library to pick up some books about it.

A couple days later we were having some friends over so I thought it would be fun to try out a cool idea I had read about in one of the books. It was a chocolate cup that you fill with whatever you want, and I was going to fill it with fresh fruit.

Now to make the cup you have to melt chocolate and blow up a balloon so it's 4 inches in diameter and dip it half way in to the chocolate (by now you might have an idea as to where this is going). Well I had planned to try this out earlier in the day, but as many of you with kids probably know my plan did not quite work out. So with a half hour left till the guests arrived I decided to hurry (bad idea) and try to get it done. AJ also decided that this was his fussy time so I am holding/calming him down while trying to blow up balloons and dip them in scalding hot, melted chocolate. Well, to my great surprise,the second balloon I dipped exploded all over AJ and I. Joe had been out moving the cars so he walked back into the house to find a crying baby (not because of the chocolate, it luckily just landed on his clothes and didn't hurt him at all) the kitchen covered in chocolate, and his amazingly creative wife and poor son covered in chocolate. Needless to say he was not thrilled since we had about 10 minutes till the guests got here, and AJ still needed to be fed. Great, what to do. Well I quickly cleaned AJ up, cleaned the kitchen, decided to make chocolate covered strawberries/bananas instead, ran upstairs, changed, and then fed the screaming boy. Needless to say the chocolate covered strawberries were delicious, the bananas not so good (note to self bananas don't freeze well) and I have put my dreams of creative baking on hold. It was a really cute idea though and maybe someday, when Joe is gone, I will give it another try.

Well got to cut this short, my chunk just pooped up his back for the 3rd time today. No joke. Any ideas as to how to help stop this little problem. All ideas are welcome since the only thing that comes to my mind is duck tape.

Chef Beth

2 Month Shots

Look at this face. Who could think that this sweet little smiley boy could cause such a ruckus. Now that my little chunk monk is finally asleep I can go into a little detail about yesterdays adventures.

It started out a typical day. I was innocently going about my business, knowing that he was going in for his two month shots, but not knowing that we would come out of there a hot mess. :)

When we got the the Dr.'s they informed me that they would be giving him two shots and one vaccine orally. For some strange reason I was most concerned about the oral vaccine, that he wouldn't take it, because he had gotten a shot before and had done really well. Believe it or not he was a champ and sucked it right down. Apparently, he has no trouble eating anything and it definitely shows. They gave him the first shot and he whimpered and cried a bit, but did good. Then the nurse told me this was the bad one and he would probably cry for a while. So she gave it and he definitely cried louder, so I quickly picked him up and comforted him. On the way out of the office he fell asleep. I thought to myself, "Geez that was easy.." oh how wrong I was. He slept a good while then woke up hungry so I fed him, after that started the small cry's. It was such a sad thing so I tried comforting, but that was not happening and it escalated from there. So for the rest of the day if he wasn't sleeping or eating he was screaming. Poor, sweet, little, chubby boy. It really was so hard since I couldn't help him and all I could do was comfort. The night went about the same. We are now finally on the other side and I came out of that experience knowing that I should have Children's Tylenol in hand next time, as I've heard that from many mom's.

Is there any other mother advice? I want to be a little more prepared next time so it can go a bit smoother. :)

So grateful he's healthy though, and that we are in a place where we can take care of our boy and get him the shots he needs.

Still learning,

Beth

PujBaby and two month update

I wish I would've asked for this for Christmas, or saw it before my baby shower. I guess there is still time to get it on my list. http://www.pujbaby.com/products/view/11/Puj_Tub/

So practical and looks so easy to use. I don't mind the one I have now, but to fill and empty and clean, it's a little more hassle then I would like. This looks so simple and easy to clean. Gives me a little more time during my day, and time is a hard thing to come by these days. Also looks easy on the back. Would love to give this a try!

AJ turned 11 weeks yesterday which is hard to imagine. He is 90th percentile for weight (14 pds 13 oz) and 80th percentile for height. He needs to be a big boy in order to hold his own in this family. He has older crazy cousins, and a Dad that I'm sure will play rough. I can't believe how fast time is going...

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I have some fun Black Friday shopping stories that I will be sure to post later this week.

Love,

Beth

Dedication and update

A couple Sundays ago we were able to dedicate AJ. It was such a sweet time, and a great reminder that AJ is here for God's glory. It was nice to have the pastors pray over us and for AJ's salvation.
Joe's mom was kind enough to take pictures for us. There were quite a few other kids being dedicated also.

A fun family picture...I look a little strange, and you can't see AJ's face, but at least Joe looks good. :)
Here is my sweet sleeping man. He always sleeps in the funniest positions. I just love those cheeks and that sweet little mouth. I still can't believe he's here. Can't wait to see this little guy grow up.
He was NOT happy about this picture. We went to Leesburg on Saturday, which was quite the adventure. AJ decided that he wanted to wake up and be hungry when we were the farthest from the car that we could possibly be. I hurried back with a screaming little man in a stroller, and I swear I have never seen so many slow walking people. You'd think that if you were walking and you heard a screaming baby behind you, you would be kind enough to step to the side....no such luck. Anyway, we got this had at Tommy Hilfiger and I wanted him to model it.

AJ had his 1 month appointment last Wednesday and he's doing well. He's over 11 pounds now, so 75 percentile for weight and height. Same as last time. He also got his first shot, and he was already so upset with the nurse that I when I turned around (I couldn't watch them give the shot) I couldn't tell when they did it.

Something that surprised me that I didn't even think of are things I can't eat because they upset his stomach. If it doesn't upset his stomach then it keeps him up all day and night.
1) Dairy
2) Broccoli (common I think)
3) Spicy food
4) Orange Juice (this also includes Sunny D which I love)
5) Caffienne - Obviously this has been a sacrifice...I would love a Dr. Pepper, Coke, or coffee in the morning. I have a starbucks giftcard that I've had for 6 weeks...normally they last me for a couple days. Yeah, it's a killer.


I'm sure there's more, and I'll come across more in the coming weeks. Luckily this only lasts for a few more months I think. It's worth it though. :)

Love,

Beth

Little AJ update...

He always makes the funniest faces...especially when he's sleeping. I love to just watch him.

He took a bath today. It went a lot better then it normally does, he didn't get upset till I took him out. Poor little man was so cold. :) He looks a little like a deer in headlights, makes me laugh. He's so alert now, it's fun to talk to him and have him staring back at you.


A few fun pics of AJ. He keeps growing a ton. He has his 1 month appointment on Thursday, can't wait to hear how our little man is doing. He is now in his 3 month clothes and some 3-6 month clothes... that will tell ya how big he is since he's not even a month yet. Ha! He still seems small to me though. Love my little boogs so much!

Hope you all had a great Columbus day!

Family Visits

So it's been a little while since I've updated. It's been a busy couple of weeks. First, my Dad, Em and my little Bro Eli were here for the weekend. We had such a great time relaxing with them. We took my dad to Red Hott and Blue, since he is a huge bbq junkie and Red Hott is definitely our fav place. Here are some pics from their time here.
We had a nice breakfast at Joe's parents.
What a sweet face. Love the onesie! :)
Isn't he the cutest little man. Love my little brother.
Can't get enough of these two. We miss them so much already.
My dad. Such a good guy. Miss him.
After they left my dad's brother Cody came by for a quick visit. We were documenting how strong little AJ is getting.
Next up is my Mom and brother Davy's visit. This is us on the metro. You can kind of see AJ, had to get a pic of his first ride. :)
Davy obeyed the overhead lady very well. Everytime he heard "please stand back and allow passengers to enter," he would step back as far as he could...even though there was no one there. I had to get a pic of it.
Davy and the Monument. Can't believe he's already 12. His birthday was the day they traveled here.
Davy in the Museum of Natural History.
Davy and my Mom.
Davy is a huge Airplane guy, so he was very excited to visit the Air and Space Museum.
This is us at the Baltimore aquarium. We really made it around last week. Got to see a lot of stuff. You can always count on a great smile from mom... :)

AJ and I in the sharks mouth...I had trouble finding his head in this picture. It's kind of squooshed down in the snugly.
The Rainforest room. We all had such a great time!
The day that they were leaving we went and visited The Adventure Park.
Both and Dave and Joe loved it. :) We had such a great time with my mom and Davy and wish they could've stayed longer...



And this I had to add because it was so stinking cute. Love these two boys so much.